October 14, 2010--I've seen quite a few 1930s TB-3s
with Bella Voce inlays on
the peghead and the standard leaves and bows on the fingerboard, but
this is the first one I've
seen with the opposite configuration.

October 8, 2010--Here's a nice
later TB-11 that has spent its entire life in my hometown of Atlanta,
Georgia.

October 5, 2010--I'm pleased to add two sound clips of
RB-3 #1288-1, an original
flathead five-string that has recently made its way back to the United States
after spending the last seven decades in South Africa.

September 10, 2010--I'm excited to be able to feature the
1940 RB-75 formerly
owned by the legendary performer Manuel Dewey "Old Joe" Clark.

September 9, 2010--Today we have a
1928 TB-3 with an early
homemade electric pickup installed!

September 6, 2010--For Labor Day, here's a five-string banjo that made
Gibson materials and workmanship, if not the Gibson name, available to lots of
working people in the years before World War II. This
fully original Kalamazoo Regular
Banjo was formerly owned by Tom Bill Draughn of Yadkinville, North Carolina.

August 24, 2010--Never say "never" when it comes to prewar Gibson banjos.
We all know that Gibson made no more trapdoor-type banjos after the 8000-series
factory order numbers were instituted in 1925, right?
Well. . .

July 30, 2010--Here's
yet another banjo that Gibson originally shipped outside the United States. . .
this original RB-2 is not as fancy as
the Royal P-T or
PB-Florentine I
recently posted, but it's actually rarer.

June 14, 2010--Bert
Johnson, the original owner of TB-1
#1115-3, has provided a photo of himself with
the banjo in a fretted instrument ensemble led by his teacher, Peter Stein, in
Rockford, Illinois in the late 1930s. In addition to Mr. Johnson and his
TB-1 on the back row, there are four
other prewar Gibson banjos visible in this photo. Be the first to
send me an e-mail identifying all four correctly and you will win "the
people's ovation and fame forever", as they say on
Iron Chef. And I'll
mention your name here. Joe Spann, you are not eligible.

May 31, 2010--The
dating of prewar Gibson banjos has long been a subject of debate and contention.
In contrast to other makers such as C.F. Martin and Company, Gibson's prewar and
wartime numbering system is extremely convoluted and often counterintuitive.
Rather than true serial numbers, Gibson primarily used a system of factory order
numbers which were solely intended for in-house use during production and
assembly; attempts to date Gibson banjos based on these numbers represent a
significant challenge.

Since the debut of this site in 1998 I had
listed the banjos in numerical order, which I now understand does not reflect
the instruments' true chronology. After consultation with Joe Spann, whose
ongoing research into original Gibson records has shed new light on true
production dates, I have now changed to a listing of banjos by year. This
listing will be subject to revision as we continue to gain more insight into
Gibson's numbering systems and production practices in the prewar period.

March 8, 2010--I've
spent the past few days correcting the entire site to reflect the revised
chronology being established by Joe Spann's ongoing research. Bottom
line--your prewar Gibson banjo is likely three to five years older than you've
always thought it was!

March 7, 2010--New
research by owner Ken Landreth has established a revised provenance for
RB-1 #9563-14.

January 21, 2010--Today we have
a nice, fully original TB-3
with a two-piece flange and no-hole archtop tone ring. Check out the
surprise inside the resonator!

January 12, 2010--While nothing can equal the experience of hearing a
prewar Gibson banjo in person (or preferably playing it yourself), I hope to add
more sound files to the site in 2010. Here's a good one to start with. . .
the owner of PB-4 #9525-6
plays his original composition "Nicomede".

January 3, 2010--Happy New Year! 2009 was a year of very exciting
vintage banjo discoveries and I can't wait to see what comes to light in 2010.
We start off the new year with RB-4 #9474-3, the third five-string flathead RB-4
ever made.